The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-06
A New Crop for Florida.

Or. w. Winthrop has created some ex-
element in Florida by series of articles in
Florida papers on opium growing. He has
had some experience in growing opium in
India and he thinks it can be cultivated sue
cessfully and profitably in Florida. In one
OF his articles he says:
THE land should be prepared as for any
other crop; fine preparation will yield in
creased return as i'll any other plant The
KIND OF seed to SOW for opium is the white
poppy, pdpdUeT sonlniferunl. 1t can be
sown IN drills or broadcast In small uuan-
tltles OF an acre or two in poor new land the
drill Is preferable as being more easily at
tended to. In Florida it can be made grow
during the entire year. The superabundance
OF sunshine in Florida during the greater
part OF the year gives the State its advan-
tages over other States. Any person suffi-
GENTLY interested can see now, this month
OF May, growing and i'll full bloom the
finest poppys at Cape Canaveral. These
plants spring up spontaneously from seed
Sown many years ago, and no care what
ever taken to preserve them. pronounce
them, as an expert, the finest in the world
lhey grow on the edge of the scrub, close
to the sandy beach in land that any one will
tell you is not worth 25c, an acre for any
thing else
Sixteen plants yield, by my process, one
ounce of gum opium worth 81 per pound
Anybody can see how much ground sixteen
poppy plants will cover, and from that make
their own calculation how many an acre
will contain. * = Opium raising de
ponds upon the cost of abstracting the gum
from the plant Heretofore this has been
done by messing the capsule and scraping
off the exuded juice. This is only three
sxteenths OF the actual amount of opium
the plant contains, the rest being lost and
the labor of collecting it is very great and
SO costly as to forbid its use in America BY
my process | not only extract all the opium
in the capsule, but obtain it from the entire
plant, and at a cost 100 per cent. cheaper
than even the Hindoo laborer at 10c per
day can collect his 3-l6ths."
The editor of the Florida Dispatch, COM
menting on DR.. Winthrop's opium growing
scheme, says: CDR. Winthrop claims that
$1,000 worth of opium can be grown from
a single acre at very little cost. All very
plausible but, unfortunately for the faith of
the incredulous, the author makes the whole
thing hinge on his process He admits that
according to the established methods now
in use in opium growing countries, the re-
turns would be but 3-16ths of the estimate
he makes or S187 so per acre, from which
expenses must be deducted; no great bo-
nanza in this But by the use of ''my pro
cess" 13-l6ths more gum can be extracted at
100 per cent. less cost. Singular that man
possessing a secret that would revolutionize
the opium world should leave the countries
where opium is produced and select State
that has never grown an ounce of the gum
wherein to demonstrate the wonders of his
process. Ten dollars is the modest price
which this gentleman asks for full informa-
ton on opium growing including the secret
Of his wonderful process. Remarkable that
information of such priceless value to the
opium magnates of the East should be given
away for mere triae in this to them out
of-the-way corner of the globe.
"The thing has suspicious look on the
surface and we advise our readers to go
slow on opium"